Tennessee hit the gas early and never looked back against the Bucs.
The Volunteers stormed to a 72-17 victory over ETSU on Saturday afternoon inside Neyland Stadium.
Tennessee improves to 2-0 while the Bucs move to 1-1 on the season.
Tennessee’s Joey Aguilar went 23-of-31 for 288 yards with two touchdowns, while Star Thomas added 69 yards on 12 carries with three touchdowns. Chris Brazzell II had nine catches for 125 yards with two scores, and Mike Matthews had 111 yards and a score on six catches.
“I like the way our guys played,” Tennessee Head Coach Josh Heupel said. “One, to start the game there are some things in the first half offensively that I felt like we needed cleaned up that in some ways we got away with but all three phases, punt returns, field position early, a big part of the game and then in the second half, defensively, long start, (we) start fast and then gave up a third down conversion, the field goal I think.”
“Second half, for the most part, I thought our young guys went out there and competed in a really positive way in all three phases of the game, so a lot of positives there,” Heupel said. “We’ll enjoy it tonight and get ready for conference play and get better here as we come back in the building on Monday.”
Tennessee opened the game with 24 first-quarter points, and maintained a 48-7 halftime advantage.
The Volunteers had 717 yards of total offense and set a modern-day (since 1937) point total of 71.
“We got our rear ends kicked by a really, really good football team and a well-coached football team,” ETSU Head Coach Will Healy said. “You know, I give them a lot of credit. I got a lot of respect for Coach Heupel. Their staff is really good. I think their players are really good. I thought they suffocated us early, and we never really were able to come up and catch our breath. We got behind the chains a couple of times on the offensive side of the ball and turned it back over quickly, put our defense in bad field positions constantly, and then we would lack communication at one spot and give up a big play.”
ETSU saw Cade McNamara go 11-of-15 for 85 yards and a score, while Jacoby Criswell went 7-of-12 for 76 yards.
Khalil Eichelberger and Jason Albritton had 30 yards apiece on the ground.
The Vols open SEC play on Saturday as Georgia pays a visit to Neyland Stadium for a 3:30 kick. The Bucs will hit the road for a trip to West Georgia.
